Preamp only (plus DI) - Fender flavoured

thecolourbox

Hi all
Was just musing about stuff instead of doing work, thinking about guitar preamps, more specifically which ones there are to choose from. I know of a Marshall valve rack one, JMP is it called or something, with all the preset options. I also vaguely recall seeing a Mesa one, but I don't know of any others in my limited amount of browsing. Is there a Fender flavoured one? Are there reasons why there wouldn't just be a preamp for that kind of tone? I also like the thought of a Vox-ey one. The hypothetical application for it would be to DI it with a Cab sim on it.
I know of the AMT and the Sansamp things (I have the Joyo knockoff), and the multitude of multi fx modellers, but wondered the feasibility and likely quality of a preamp used in a setting such as this
Oh the other one I thought of was one of the Vibro/super champ amps with a line out, suppose they'd be a monitor as well then eh? Or a VHT Special 6, DI in the loop then have the line through back to fx return for a monitor through the speaker.
Cheers

ThePrettyDamned

The AMT, Tech 21 and Joyo preamps get rave reviews for a reason - they sound great, though it's not the same as a valve amp at volume with a mic, mic pre and desk...

The newer Peavey Bandits have an emulated out, but it's not as good sounding as those preamps listed above.  

There is the Kemper or Axe FXII.  They are the pro level digital solutions.

The Hughes and Kettner Tubeman is supposed to be pretty great.  

I've also heard good things about this, and I know that Engl have great, warm, fat Fender esque cleans http://www.thomann.de/gb/engl_e530_preamp_egitarre.htm but I think you'd need a seperate DI box (might be wrong).  

Randall do the RG13, which is FET based and supposedly sounds great, and Mesa Boogie do a rack version of the dual rec I think, which has an emulated out.  This obviously has a great, Fendery clean sound.

So in other words, there are loads - but you pay a premium for the valve, rackmount kit.  The Laney Ironheart is a nice compromise, it's a 15 watt valve amp but I don't think you'd get Voxey sounds from it :P

Flanging_Fred

I have a broken Groove Tubes STPG rack preamp that I'm getting restored. It is basically a modded Fender deluxe and it had one of the very first speaker emulated outputs. If the chap doing the restoration gets it back to me, I'll let you know how it turns out.

EDIT - oh, apparently it's fixed and I can pick it up. #excited.

goldtop

Fendery tones from a preamp? From personal experience:

1) Alembic F2-b (Dual Showman 2-channel preamp in a 1U rack-mount case, meant for bass, but also used by guitarists - e.g. Gilmour), very basic and only a high-impedance unemulated output, but you could possibly use something like a Behringer GI-100 to speaker emulate it (?)

2) Mesa Boogie Studio preamp - way more tones, effectively the preamp of a Mark II amp, so you get a Blackface-y clean, saturated Lead, switchable graphic EQ, reverb, PLUS emulated and full-range line outs.

3) Mesa Boogie Quad preamp - looks like two Studio preamps in one. Monster range of tones. Probably overkill?

Of them, the Studio is a bargain.

I've not tried the more recent Mesa Boogie preamps (except the V-Twin rack-mount, which was nowhere near the quality of the Studio and I quickly sold it on).

steamabacus

The Ethos Overdrive Preamp has a good reputation. Not cheap, mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FViYrv3cEcs

thecolourbox

Wow there seem to be quite a few, I knew there were Mesa ones but such is my ignorance of the tones Mesa's produce I had always only thought of the gain sounds. How very interesting
I shall certianly keep an eye out for these (you gotta love a bit of "look but don't touch" eh) but I do notice that most of the full preamp ones actually seem to be costing more than my existing Amp haha so might also try and fiddle with that to see if i can use that as a preamp too. May be something I need in near future...
The Mesa Studio one looks particularly interesting
Keep em coming folks (or if y'all are selling anything similar of course...) if you know of any others =]

goldtop

Those early Mesa Boogie preamps, like the Mark series of amplifiers, was a pure and simple Fender Blackface preamp. then Mesa added a lot of goodies: footswitch to add in a hotrodded overdrive Lead circuit, then the graphic EQ and then the reverb/loop.

Not as gainy as the later Triaxis/Rectifier/etc preamps.

Had one. Sold it. Regretted it. Bought another.

thecolourbox

Sounds like the usual way it goes, if i sell my hot rod deluxe i imagine I'll pine for it again afterwards! But depends what I'd get to replace it with I guess...these are looking very tasty.
hmm, i shall keep my gumtree/ebay eyes open

AndyJP

A nice valve based pedal such as one of the Kingsley ones and a two notes c.a.b for speaker sim would be great. I think the Kingsley Squire is fender based. 

Or the effectrode blackbird and two notes c.a.b would be great. That's fender based too.